We Turned Off Our Cable for the Summer & Now Have No Plans of Turning it Back On

Have you ever had a happy accident?

Disconnecting our cable was not initially in the plan, but ATT & Comcast didn’t want to cooperate, so we decided to keep our money in our pockets.

Our cable & internet were originally bundled together with AT&T, when our contract was due to end in June. Usually, the first year is a deal you can’t refuse (that’s how they suck you in), then it triples on year 2.

When our AT&T contract was nearing the end, we decided to leave AT&T and go with Comcast. This time, Comcast had a great deal, but the phrase “you get what you pay for” quickly comes to mind.

Quickly, what happened….

Comcast didn’t initially come when they said they would, and I took off work to meet them! After we called to remind them, they wanted to reschedule for 10 days later! 10 DAYS WITHOUT CABLE AND INTERNET? We then received our first bill, which was for something we didn’t order. My husband tried to cancel, but we learned that it really wasn’t cancelled. We also found out they had an incorrect name for him, and wouldn’t change it. We had to pay a deposit because they couldn’t find our address (WHAT!). In the end, we received the deposit back and finally decided to go back to AT&T for internet.

We decided to forgo cable since school was out and the kids would be in camp, but UNFORTUNATELY WE COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT INTERNET. We had already been without it for 3 weeks and who knew how much the internet was apart of our everyday lives?

We ended up with AT&T for internet and let the kids know that Disney, Nick, & more would not be returning for the summer. I think I remember seeing tears roll down my daughters face.

HOW DID WE LIVE WITHOUT CABLE:

We lived! Over the summer, my kids enjoyed camp and on the weekends they rented movies. Luckily this was a great summer, and riding bikes with the kids when I got off work became a normal occurrence.

Rented movies: Redbox saw us a lot over the summer, but the cost didn’t come close to the cable bill we had with 3 boxes. My husband is Mr. Coupon, so most of the time we had a BOGO movie anyway. ($1.20 for two)

Antenna: Someone told my husband about ‘bunny ears’, which is basically an antenna that you plug in to your television and allowed us to get all of the local channels. This is great because, we can still see the local news and what’s going on in the world. Fortunately for me, most of my shows are on ABC, so I won’t miss Scandal!

WHY DID WE DECIDE NOT TO TURN IT BACK ON

Well, June and July came and went, and now school was starting. It’s now January and we still do not have cable. We decided that we are doing just fine without it and we like keeping our coins.

With the antenna, we see all the local channels and for the remainder of the shows we can’t see on TV, we catch on YouTube, Online and Netflix.

We recently purchased a Samsung Blue-ray BD-F5900 Disc Player that allows us to stream anything from our tablets, Netflix, Hulu, all the kids programming and a range of other things on our TV. So we really don’t feel like we are missing out on anything anymore.

WHAT DO WE MISS?

My husband misses ESPN. I miss CNN & OWN. I can go on CNN.com anytime, but it’s not the same. CNN to me, was like ESPN to my husband. That was the channel my TV stayed on, because I love knowing what’s going on in the world.

As far as OWN, I miss Oprah! She doesn’t allow her material to be shown online at all sooooooo, I got halfway into The Have & Have Nots and will never know what happened to her son that was in the coma! Also, I miss my Lifeclasses and Super Soul Sunday.

Although we miss those 3 networks, it’s not worth $80 a month to get them back.

Oh! I miss DVR!

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO GOING FORWARD:

We have recently purchased Netflix and still deciding on Hulu. Both of those together would be around $20 a month, and still cheaper than our cable bill. Then the kids will be able to watch what they want, when we allow them to versus crying about missing a show at a certain time.

I’ve even did Facebook polls on Apple TV, Roku & Google Chrome. The jury is still out on those. Right now, it has become our new normal so we’re ok.

WHAT’S WEIRD

The only negative about not having cable is when we have considered having a baby sitter come over. I’ve said to my husband, “What are they going to watch?” My husband’s response is, “They are here to watch our children, not tv!”

Although he is correct, it’s still seems wrong!

Do you still have cable? Have you ever considered turning it off?

Comments

Bernetta is the creator and primary content creator for BernettaStyle.com. This website was created to motivate women to live simple, smart, and inspired lives through stories of motherhood, wife life, and so much more. Bernetta is a lovely wife and mother. She enjoys reading, staying active and trying new things.

17 Comments

We just got a roku for Christmas and it seriously has me considering turning off the cable. BUT three things keep us from ditching it completely right now: ESPN, CNN, and HGTV. If I could somehow get those using a amazon prime, netflix or hulu, it would be a go. We would save a LOT of money. I’m not even going to say how much .LOL

Oh how I would love to ditch the cable bill! Most of the shows I watch are on HBO and Starz so I don’t know that I ever will completely cut the cord; however, I did remove TV’s and cable boxes from my children’s rooms a little over a year ago because they are all very active and barely watched it anyhow. That alone was a good savings!

I always wonder what my life would be without TV. I can imagined getting so much accomplished. Writing my first book, reading more, getting rid of that daunting to do list, and becoming creative when it comes to entertaining guest.

I had a teacher who taught a writing class and she said she does not own a television in her house. I was intrigued by the idea. However, her husband was a writer and they was able to agree on that.

My husband takes his TV seriously. Besides it’s one of the ways we spend time together. Nothing like watching a show, while cuddling with my hubby. Well, there goes that idea of no TV.

We still have cable but our ATT contract is up this month. I would miss HGTV, Cooking Channel, CNN & OWN too but if the husband wants to go without I am happy with that. We have Netflix so we will all be fine.
My DVR is full but I rarely ever catch up on anything. Still haven’t watched the last episode of Scandal! Imagine that.

I admire you guys and Im sure the extra coins come in handy. My apartment complex currently includes our cable for free. But I think since I haven’t had a cable bill, I would be following in your footsteps if I had to pay a high rate

Let me tell you how this post was right on time! I had questions (about surviving without OWN specifically) before I read the post. Honestly, we BARELY watch TV anyway. BUT it’s that whole FOMO situation. We went as far as cutting all of the premium channels over the summer and getting rid of the cable box in our room since we have Apple TV. But when I realized OWN was a premium channel, I caved in and we added it back -_-. But we’re on a mission in 2015 and I literally just told my hubby yesterday that I’m officially ready to cut the cord. We’re paying too much for TV we don’t watch. We already have Netflix and Hulu, and we were planning to get a second Apple TV for downstairs for the kids. There are pros and cons to each of them, but none seem to cancel out the other IMO. Thanks for the encouragement! 🙂

Honestly, we could ditch out cable because the kids pretty much watch kid videos on YouTube and Netflix and I barely watch more than 4 hours a week. I’m a book worm by nature so tv has never been a big form of entertainment for me. I doubt we’ll get rid of it because my husband can’t be without his shows or football games.

I ditched my cable around 6 months ago as well due to high cost. Plus I was NEVER HOME to watch it. My daughter says she misses it a little, but we watch Hulu and Netflix and we live. Ditching Cable was one of my best ideas.

I was just discussing getting rid of Directv last night with my hubby. I am tired of the increase in cost it seems like every year and now that ATT has taken over I am sure it will be even higher. He loves espn and he gets the NFL package every season so if it wasn’t for that I would be saying goodbye to the satellite dish. We have Roku as well as Netflix and I love it. Roku has so many channel options for you to watch and most are free, I wish they had espn as an option and I would be a happy camper. But I am looking for a way to figure that ESPN option to get him over the hump and when I do we will be disconnecting the cable monster as well.

We’ve not had cable since July of last year and don’t miss it. I love Hulu plus because at least I can see my shows the day after. ABC.com has some shows on lock for up to two weeks before they will show them online. Between Netflix, Hulu Plus and we also have Amazon Prime, we are paying way less than the cable bill. I think ESPN will come out next with a streaming package as more consumers are going this route.